Wendy Wilkins (born March 1, 1949) was provost and executive vice president at New Mexico State University until November 2012. She took the post in mid-July 2010 after resigning from the University of North Texas at the end of business day, July 1, 2010. Prior to beginning her service as the University of North Texas Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs in 2007, Wilkins has served as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University and as Associate Dean for Academic Personnel in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. Her work in academic administration began with service as Associate Chair, and then Chair, of the Department of English at ASU.
Education Wilkins’ academic preparation, in Linguistics, includes a PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles, two post-doctoral appointments in Cognitive Science at the University of California at Irvine, and a pre-doctoral appointment in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT.
Employment and research Wilkins' primary research training was in syntactic theory; more recently she has worked on the evolutionary neurobiology of language and comparative linguistic and musical cognition. As a faculty member, Wilkins has held numerous positions both in the United States and in Mexico. In the U.S, in addition to ASU and MSU, she has served in a visiting capacity at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and at the University of Washington. In Mexico City, she was a professor of Linguistics at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Ixtapalapa; Centro de Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios, El Colegio de México; and Departamento de Lingüística, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. She also held a research position at Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Applicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Since becoming an administrator, Wilkins has remained involved in service to the profession. She engaged actively with the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, including service on the Board of Directors. Within Linguistics, she was elected delegate-at-large for Section Z (Linguistics and Language Science) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and has accepted numerous service assignments for the Linguistic Society of America (LSA).
Administrative professional activities National and state 2009–Presenter, Panel on Cost Containment and Enhancing Effectiveness, Council on Academic Affairs Summer Meeting, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) 2008-09 - Participant, Institute for New Chief Academic Officers, American Council on Education (ACE) 2002-04 - Member, Board of Directors, Boar’s Head Theatre, Lansing, Michigan 2002 - Chair, Workshop for Assistant and Associate Deans, Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) 2002 - Co-Chair, Program Committee, Annual Meeting of Arts and Sciences Deans, Association of American Universities (AAU), Berkeley, CA 2001-04 - Member, Board of Directors, East Lansing Film Festival 2001 - Organizer, Panel on Budgeting, Annual Meeting of Arts and Sciences Deans, AAU, Tucson, AZ 2000-03 - Member, Board of Directors, CCAS 2000 - Member, External Review Team, Departments of Modern Languages and Literatures and Language Media Center, University of Iowa 2000 - Participant, Re-Envisioning the PhD Project, University of Washington. Project funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Council of Graduate Schools; project directors at the University of Washington, with invited participation of others 2000 - Organizer, Case Studies Session, Annual Meeting, CCAS 2000 - Member, Program Committee, CCAS 1999-2004 - Participant, Imagining America/Imagining Michigan. Project conceived and developed out of White House Millennium Council, with leadership provided by University of Michigan and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, with invited participation of others 1999–Presenter, Dean’s Clinic (Large Institutions), Annual Meeting, CCAS 1999-2000 - Member, Committee on the Internationalization of Education, CCAS 1998-2004 - Member, Arts and Sciences Deans Group, Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). The CIC comprises the Big Ten universities plus the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago. 1998-2004 - Member, Arts and Sciences Deans Group, AAU Public Institutions 1996-1999 - Member, Resolutions Committee, CCASS. Developed two resolutions, both adopted by CCAS at the 1996 annual meeting, on fair and appropriate use of electronic communications technologies. 1996-98 - Founder, Arizona Council of Arts and Sciences Administrators (ACASA). ACASA includes the arts and sciences deans, associate deans, and assistant deans from the Arizona state universities (ASU, UA, NAU). 1996 - Panel Chair, CCAS. Panel on information technologies (including technology transfer, the Avirtual@ university, and evaluating technology innovations for personnel reviews) 1995–Presenter, CCAS. Panel addressing partner accommodation issues in faculty hiring. 1995 - Panel Chair, Association of Departments of English, Summer Seminar. Workshop for newly appointed English department chairs. 1992 - Chair, Host Committee, Association of Departments of English, Summer Seminar
Michigan State University (1998–2004) 2001-04 - Member, Board of Directors, Estate Wealth and Strategies Institute. One of three deans appointed to Board of non-profit institute focusing on inter-generational wealth transfer issues. 2001-04 - Member, Board of Directors, Michigan State University Alumni Association. One of two deans who serve on the Association Board, along with elected MSU alumni and other ex-officio members from University central administration. 2001-04 - Member, Selection Committee, University Distinguished Professorships. The UDP is MSU’s highest internal honor for an individual faculty members 2001-04 - Member, Enrollment Strategy Council. One of three deans on advisory committee working with Director of Admissions. 2000-04 - Member, Executive Advisory Committee, Executive Development Center. One of six on-campus members of committee to serve in advisory capacity. 1999-2003 - Member, Campaign Strategy Committee (Office of the Provost and University Development). Committee of six deans plus members of the central administration and University Development, involved in developing policies and procedures for MSU’s billion-dollar-plus (sesquicentennial) capital campaign 1999-2000 - Chair, Steering Committee, Center for Great Lakes Culture 1999-2000 - Member, Planning Committee, Academic Leadership Program 1999-2004 - Member, Jewish Studies Program Advisory Board 1998-2004 - Lead Dean, Integrative Studies Program. Integrative Studies is the core curriculum in general education at MSU 1998-2004 - Member, Study Abroad Deans Group. On-campus committee, advisory to the Dean of International Studies and Programs 1998-2004 - Member, Campus Cultural Coordinating Committee 1998-99 - Member, MSU Team, Wharton/IRHE Program for the Knight Collaborative, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Team composed of two deans and four other academic leaders; team project focused on collaborative work
Arizona State University (1987–1997) 1997-98 - Member, Workforce for the University for the Next Century Project Team. Task force charged with revisioning Human Resources in the University 1997 - Member, Search Committee, Director of Faculty Development Program 1997-98 - Member, Advisory Network, Employee Career Enrichment Program 1996-98 - Member, Main Campus Information Technology Strategic Planning Committee. Committee charged to address both strategic and implementation plans for Information Technology 1996-98 - Member, Provost’s Working Group on Diversity 1995-98 - Chair, University Information Technology Advisory Committee. Committee advisory to Vice Provost for Information Technology. 1995-98 - Member, Employee Assistance Program Advisory Committee. Committee advisory to EAP Program Director. 1995-98 - Facilitator, Associate and Assistant Deans Council. Program to coordinate on-campus professional development activities for assistant and associate deans 1995-96 - Member, Human Resources Oversight Committee. Committee charged with on-campus review of human resources office. 1995-96 - Vice President, Board of Directors, University Club 1995 - Member, Coordinating Team, Student Process Re-engineering Project. SPRP was the University-level project with the fundamental goal of improving services to students; Wilkins was the Academic Affairs representative 1994-98 - Chair, Strategic Planning and Academic Resources Advisory Committee. Committee responsibilities included advising the Dean on both short- and long-term priorities and writing and revising the College strategic plan. 1994-1997 - Member, Chicana and Chicano Studies Advisory Committee. Chicana/o Studies, a new degree program and department, gained Regents’ approval in 1997. 1994 - Member, Main Campus Strategic Budgeting Committee. Subcommittee of the Main Campus Strategic Planning Committee. 1994 - Member, Preparing Future Faculty project. Graduate student training for the future professoriate; project directed by the Graduate College and funded by the Pew Foundation and the Council of Graduate Schools. 1994 - Member, Selection Committee, Legislative Intern Program 1994 - Member, University Summer Bridge Program Committee. Committee charged with developing programs to ease transition for marginally prepared high school students becoming first-year ASU students. 1994-95 - Member, Commission on New Student Orientation. Committee charged with developing a plan to improve orientation activities. 1994-95 - Member, Killer Course Task Force. Task force charged with determining which lower division courses were obstacles to student success, especially first- to second-year persistence. 1994-95 - Member, University Strategic Planning Committee for Mathematical Sciences. Committee charged with developing a plan to improve student learning and satisfaction in lower division mathematics. 1994 - Member, Search Committee, Humanities Computing Facility director 1992-1996 - Member, Board of Directors, University Club 1992-93 - Chair, Task Force on Quality and Diversity. College-level subcommittee of University task force charged with developing a plan for enhancing quality and diversity among the students and faculty. 1992-93 - Member, Search Committee, Dean of the College of Extended Education 1990-92 - Member, CLAS Strategic Planning Committee 1988-90 - Chair, CLAS Student Affairs and Grievances Committee 1987-89 - Chair, University Interdisciplinary Committee on Adaptive Neural Systems
Publications
Books 2007 - Phrasal and clausal architecture: Syntactic derivation and interpretation, Amsterdam: John Benjamins (Editor, with S. Karimi and V. Samiian). 1988 - Thematic Relations, Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 21. New York: Academic Press (Editor). 1984 - Locality in Linguistic Theory, New York: Academic Press (with P. Culicover).
Refereed Publications 2010 - Toward an evolutionary biology of language through comparative neuroanatomy, in The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution, Maggie Tallerman and Kathleen Gibson (editors), Oxford University Press, in press. 2009 - Mosaic neurobiology and anatomical plausibility, in The Prehistory of Language, Rudolph Botha and Chris Knight (editors), Oxford University Press, pp. 390–420. 2007 - Layers, mosaic pieces, and tiers, The Linguistic Review, 24(4):475–484. 2007 - Conceptual space. In Karimi, S., Samiian, V., and Wilkins, W.K. (Eds.), Phrasal and clausal architecture: Syntactic derivation and interpretation, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 365–395 (with J. Wakefield). 2005 - Anatomy matters, The Linguistic Review, 22(2-4):271-288.